BRAHMANANDA 1

The first President of the Ramakrishna Order, Swami Brahmananda, the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna, was a gigantic spiritual powerhouse about whom it is said that he was 'KARMA-NAASHAA, FARAASH-DAANGAA'. KARMA-NAASHAA means one who can destroy karmic bonds and FARAASH-DAANGAA means colonial French Indian territory like Chandannagar and Pondicherry which was beyond British jurisdiction in pre-independence India. Indian freedom fighters would sometimes slip out of British Indian territory and seek temporary refuge here in these French territories to avoid arrest and execution by the British administration. Aurobindo Ghosh is the most striking case in point who sought permanent asylum in Pondicherry and remained out of British hands despite severe implications in seditious activity against the British Raj. Swami Brahmananda was a knower of Brahman, an Ishwarkoti ( an exalted spiritual personality at par with the Divine ) and an Aadhikaarik Purush ( a spiritual personality endowed with divine authority ) who could in a trice dissolve the karmic bonds of a person and free him instantly Taking refuge in him meant that the refugee was beyond the domain of Maya and was in the free zone of God irrespective of whatever the background of that person may have been for BRAHMANANDA himself was GOD. Thus, in such a sanctified place as Belur Math, illumined monks of the Order of Ramakrishna which included some of the direct disciples of the Master decided to build the BRAHMANANDA TEMPLE alongside the RAMAKRISHNA TEMPLE, HOLY MOTHER'S TEMPLE and the VIVEKANANDA TEMPLE. This was a certification of the fact that Swami Brahmananda was simply divine and the signatories to this unwritten document were luminaries like Swamis Shivananda, Saradananda, Subodhananda, Akhandananda and Vijnanananda, all of whom were the direct disciples of the Master. Swami Brahmananda used to remain so immersed in the thought of Sri Ramakrishna that his whole personality was coloured up with the being of the Master so much so that some fortunate ones were blessed with the vision of the Master in his form now transfigured. When Swami Brahmananda used to stroll in the lawns of Belur Math, many an onlooker form behind him mistook him to be the Master such was his identity with his spiritual father. What more can I say than to exhort you to meditate on this supremely effulgent soul and to seek refuge at his lotus feet for indeed his is the eternal playmate of the Lord, the cowherd boy of Vrindavan, the anklet-clad dance-mate of his Lotus Krishna ( Kamaley Krishna ) who knew nothing in life but the perpetual remembrance of his divine beloved ? May Swami Brahmananda bless all !